McAdam: The Ron Roenicke era begins with a bang

Memo to Ron Roenicke: They're not all going to be this easy.

Eventually, you'll have to face major league opponents.

Thankfully, after stripping the Red Sox of a draft-pick for their participation in sign-stealing in 2018, Major League Baseball gave the Sox a makeup call by giving them a three-game series with the truly sorry Baltimore Orioles to begin the 2020 season.

Talk about a soft opening.

The Red Sox made the most of their offering by pounding the O's into submission 13-2. This one was over by the third inning when the Sox bats awoke from a two-inning slumber and hammered starter Tommy Milone with four doubles, each one of them into nearly the exact same spot in the left-field corner.

From there on, it was only a matter of piling on. By the last third of the game, Roenicke could give 21-year-old Jonathan Arauz his major league debut and first at-bat. He could get two innings of work for Phillips Valdez, who, let's face it, you probably didn't know was on the roster.

The offense onslaught was also a nice gift for starter Nate Eovaldi. Eovaldi's first pitch of the night was clocked at 100 mph, but before long, Orioles leadoff man Austin Hays rocketed one to right field with approximately the same velocity. Fortunately for Eovaldi, Kevin Pillar, getting his first start in Fenway's expansive right field, raced back and made a nice leaping grab.

A play like that likely served as a caffeinated injection for Eovaldi, who was making his first career Opening Day start under highly unusual circumstances. Even with piped-in crowd noise, Fenway sounded like it might on a Sunday morning before the gates are open: you could hear the crack of the bat, the chatter of some players and not much more.

Adrenaline? That you have to supply yourself.



The steady parade of Red Sox hitters crossing the plate supplied Eovaldi with more than enough offensive backing. In the fourth inning alone, they sent 11 men to the plate and scored six runs, aided and abetted by an Orioles pitching staff that supplied three walks and a wild pitch.

The barrage of base hits helped to serve as a blueprint for this Red Sox season. On most nights, they'll have to score early and often to bail out their pitchers. On Friday, of course, that was less of a problem, given the opposition. But there will be nights in which the other guys will be rounding the bases regularly, too.

Roenicke's debut as Red Sox manager will, in time, likely be remembered for the backdrop -- the total absence of fans, the fact that Opening Day came exactly a week before the usual trade deadline, and for the pre-game ceremony that featured a show of support for racial justice by both teams.

None of those factors was in play when Roenicke last won a game as a major league manager: May 3, 2015.

Before the game, Roenicke allowed that, yes, even after more than 40 years in the game, Opening Day still put some extra spring in his step. But the look on his face suggested that the start of the season was more a relief than anything else. For a few hours, he wasn't consumed with health and safety protocols, or COVID-19 testing or social distancing from players and coaches.

He could just manage, which months ago -- before Chris Sale went down for the count, before the pandemic shut down the game and brought the world to its knees -- was exactly what he was hired to do.

It should be noted, too, that Roenicke had as good a night as many of his players. Every call he made when it came to putting together the lineup worked out well.

With a lefty starting for the Orioles, Roenicke kept Jackie Bradley Jr. in the lineup despite his well-documented struggles against southpaws. Result? Bradley rewarded the gesture with three hits (including two doubles), three runs scored and two RBI.

If Roenicke was going to sit a lefty-hitting outfielder for the righthanded Pillar, logic dictated that it be Bradley. Instead, Roenicke kept Alex Verdugo on the bench and had Pillar play right.

(One wonders how that went over in the owners' suite. Days after Mookie Betts and the Dodgers put the finishing touches on a mammoth contract extension, the primary player the Red Sox obtained for Betts was deemed a non-essential worker for the Fenway opener).

But that call worked, too. In addition to Pillar's highlight grab on the warning track in the first, he also three hits, including a two-run double which sparked the four-run third.

Every button Roenicke pushed was the right one.

He'll need many more nights like this for the Red Sox to make something out of the season. Some nights, he'll make all the right calls and it won't matter because his pitchers will somewhat resemble what his poor Baltimore counterpart, Brandon Hyde, had to work with Friday night.

For one night, however, it all worked. The Orioles leave town Sunday night, and the Red Sox are advised to make the most of their visitors' stay while they can.